Tamil Nadu: Over 97 Lakh Names Deleted From Voters’ List

Chennai: In the draft electoral roll, published on Friday after the enumeration process of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), carried out between November 4 and December 14 all over the State, 97,37,832 names were deleted from the earlier list of 6,41,14,587 voters by the Election Commission of India, which has announced that genuine electors could be added back in the rolls during the claims and objections period from December 19 to January 18, 2026.

While the draft rolls were published by the respective district electoral officers (DEOs) and uploaded in the ECI website, the Chief Electoral Officer, Archana Patnaik, said in a press release that the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) could not find those voters whose names had been deleted or get back the enumeration forms from them due to a plethora of reasons.

They could have become electors in other States or Union Territories or were not found to be in existence or were not willing to register as a voter for some reasons since they did not submit the form till the deadline of December 14, she said. Also the name of electors found enrolled in multiple places would be retained only at one place, she said.

Attributing the successful completion of the first phase to the coordination of DEOs of all 38 districts, 234 EROs, 776 AEROs and 68,487 BLOs, who were supported by 48,873 volunteers, the CEO said that the field representatives of 12 political parties, whose district presidents had appointed 2,46,069 Booth Level Agents (BLAs), also helped in the process.

Young electors who would turn 18 on or before January 1, 2026, were being encouraged to apply through Form-6 along with the prescribed declaration and efforts would be made to enroll all eligible voters during the special campaigns to be conducted across the State, she said.

During the enumeration process help desks were set up at all the polling stations to facilitate electors fill up the forms with the help of the 48,873 volunteers deployed for the purpose, she said.

To ensure universal awareness and participation, the CEO, DEOs and EROs conducted extensive awareness campaigns and held multiple meetings with political parties to explain the process and share the progress updates, she said.

The BLOs, who conducted meetings with the BLAs and allowed each of them to file up to 50 enumeration forms a day, personally visited the houses of electors whose names were on the rolls as on October 27 to hand over the forms and then followed it up with at least three visits to collect the forms back.

No name could be deleted from the draft roll published on December 19 without notice and a speaking order from the ERO/AERO and aggrieved electors could appeal to the district magistrate and then to the CEO, she said, reiterating the Commission’s firm commitment to a transparent, participative and inclusive SIR, ensuring that no eligible voters was left out and no ineligible name remained in the roll.